‘Pizza on the farm – a trend is taking hold’

Rich Palzewic

Staff

September 16, 2024

GALESVILLE – Using the land his family originally settled in 1852, Rob Grover – owner of Winghaven Pizza Farm in Galesville – said he takes pride in knowing he’s carrying on some of the family legacy.

“It means a lot to the family,” he said. “If you think about it – 1852 – that’s almost 10 years before the Civil War broke out. Think about all the history our family has seen. We’ve never been a wealthy family – we’ve been farm people and succeeded through wars, the Great Depression and tragedies. Every generation has had to think of a new way to make things work, and somehow, we’ve been able to hold on to the land and make a living from it. There’s a lot of pride there.”

When N.B. and Mary Grover first settled on the family farm more than 170 years ago, Rob Grover said they planted apple trees.

“I never had any interest in farming,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t going into traditional agriculture and be a corn and soybean farmer like my dad was. I also knew I wouldn’t run an apple orchard on the farm like my grandfathers and great-grandfathers did. But what I did know was, I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit – that’s why I opened Winghaven.”

Winghaven, located at N18057 Grover Lane, opened in 2017 and has been making stone-fired pizzas since – all in a farm-like setting.

“I’m the fifth generation of the family – me and my siblings – to be on the farm,” he said. “Every generation of the farm did a different kind of farming, but I knew that probably wasn’t where my interests were. Just like the generations before me, I’ve found a way to utilize the land.”

Winghaven is only open three days a week for now – Friday through Sunday – Grover said.

“When not at Winghaven, I work as the advancement director for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of La Crosse,” he said.

Before that, Grover said he served as Trempealeau County’s Economic Development and Tourism Coordinator.

“We’re looking into future expansion where we would do more events,” he said. “We’d also like to have more indoor space. Down the road, we’d also like to expand the hours. That’s on the horizon – not in the next few months, but maybe in the next couple of years.”

‘A trend taking hold’

Twenty years ago, Grover said there were no such things as pizza farms.

“It’s very much a Midwestern concept,” he said. “Maybe 10-12 years ago, the first ones started popping up. Now, there’s quite a few you’re seeing. I wouldn’t say there are many in my area. There are a few here and there, but there are quite a few in the Midwest.”

A pizza farm, Grover said, is just that – “using the physical footprint of a farm/barn to offer pizza.”

“We have this beautiful old barn right on the farm, but it’s in rough shape,” he said. “We don’t use the interior of the barn that much, but we built a pavilion that’s connected to it. We have this beautiful seating area that’s connected to the farm, and we also built a stage for music.”

Though Grover said the pavilion and seating area help make Winghaven a successful pizza farm, the custom-built food trailer was a “game-changer.”

“That’s where we produce all of our pizzas,” he said. “We’ve got pizza, beer and wine and live music all out on the family farm. Having a food trailer on site saved us thousands of dollars because we didn’t have to build a commercial kitchen.”

In addition to “delicious pizza,” Grover said Winghaven occasionally hosts local small food and beverage vendors during normal business hours to allow customers to try samples from its business partners.

“We also host private parties for individuals and local businesses,” he said. “Winghaven is a perfect spot for a wide variety of events such as birthday/anniversary parties, baby/bridal showers and corporate outings.” 

How it started

Because he knew the agriculture route was not for him, Grover said that meant searching for another way to utilize the land.

“What could we do on the farm that would be interesting, that could get people onto the land and that could get people who maybe don’t have a connection to agriculture and to a farm there?” he said. “You go back a couple of generations and so many people grew up on farms. Now we’re two, three or four generations removed – some people don’t have the old family farm to go to. We wanted to do something where people could come and enjoy the land, enjoy the farm and be outdoors and relax.”

Fast forward to 2016, and Grover said he and a friend visited a different pizza farm about 90 minutes away from where he lives.

“We thought, ‘this is just incredible,’” he said. “The idea sparked in my head like, ‘gosh, we can do this. We can do this on my family’s farm.’”

Grover said Winghaven’s location in the region also helps.

“We’re about 25-30 minutes from La Crosse, 20 minutes from Winona, Minnesota, and 55 minutes from Eau Claire,” he said. “We’re right along the Mississippi River along Great River Road where a lot of tourism is developing – whether it’s from orchards or other agri-tourism things.”

The next steps, Grover said, included turning the dreams into reality.

“After a lot of hard work and planning, we opened in September 2017,” he said. “My buddy and I owned the business together until 2022, and then I bought him out and have been the sole owner for the last two seasons. My sister Sarah is the general manager – she runs a lot of the scheduling and ordering and some of that day-to-day stuff. It’s nice because then I don’t have to worry about that.”

Grover said Winghaven is very much a family and friends-run operation.

“On any given night, we have about five to six staff,” he said. “We also hire some outside folks who become like family to us, but a lot of the employees are family members or friends we’ve known for years.”

What’s in a name?

Two generations after N.B. and Mary first settled on the farm, Henry and Evelyn Grover thought the growing orchard business needed a more formal name, Rob Grover said.

“With our farm being right on the migratory bird path due to its proximity to the Mississippi River, many ‘winged’ guests found a ‘haven’ in the apple trees,” he said. “So, the name Winghaven Orchards was chosen.”

Grover said it seemed fitting to continue the name with the pizza farm.

Winghaven is open from 4-8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon-4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, visit winghavenpizzafarm.com.